


Against the End

by pirategirljack



Category: 12 Monkeys (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, all sorts of plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 19:57:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4234629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pirategirljack/pseuds/pirategirljack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the sequel to both Before the End and After the End, set after they merged into one story when Cole and Cassie were reunited. Alt S2, I guess, since we have no idea what's happening in actual season two, what with it still being A HUNDRED YEARS AWAY.</p><p>(the first idea for chapter 1 came from a dream Ohgress had that she told me about) (chapter two, which will follow at some point, came from a dream I had!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reunions, continued

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ohgress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohgress/gifts).



> It's started out steamier than I was expecting! Which made me all sorts of nervous, but my brain is filling in plot behind it so I'm just gonna post it and keep going and see how often C&C manage to get into bed while everything goes crazy around them.

Cassie got out of the shower, clean for the first time an almost half a year, wrapped herself in the fluffy white robe the hotel provided, and sat on the edge of an actual soft bed. Ramse handed her a whole box of chinese food just for herself. Cole watched her with big, warm eyes as she shoveled into it with her hand--then smiled and handed her a fork.

All at once, she remembered the same thing from the other direction, and she laughed and took it. Cole smiled, half shy, and half pleased, and if she’d thought that she couldn’t be any happier to see his face again, she’d have been wrong.

"How're you doing, Dr Railly?" Ramse asked, his feet up and his chair balanced back on two legs as he ate. She'd been trying to read his face since they brought her home to this expensive hotel, and she still wasn't sure what he was feeling. Or what she was, looking at him. She'd tried to shoot him and gotten herself shot, but it was all so long ago now. It was like it had happened to someone else.

"Much better. But..."

Cole jumped on that trailed-off word like a wolf on a rabbit. "But what?"

She turned to him, smiling to ease his tenseness, keeping it up even though it didn't soften any of his tension at all. "It's been a long time. I keep--I guess I've forgotten a lot about what the world is like, here. Soft beds. Hot water. Food. God, food. It's all going to take a little getting used to again."

Cole looked skeptical, but he finally turned back to his own food, and he and Ramse talked about nothing while she ate and tried to adjust. 

After they'd cleared their food and had a beer each, Ramse got to his feet and said, "I'll give you two some space."

"That's not necessary--" she started, at the same time that Cole said, "It's not like that, man."

But Ramse just raised an eyebrow, and looked pointedly at the both of them. "I saw how you reacted when she dropped out of nowhere, brother. I’ve seen a lot of things with you, but I’ve never seen that before. And I've seen how you've been devouring every inch of her with your eyes all night."

Cassie flushed, a mix of shyness and embarrassment and something a lot like vindicated pleasure pushing heat up into her cheeks. Cole shut down and scowled harder than he had in these few hours since she came back.

"I'm leaving," Ramse said. "You two talk. Or...whatever."

As soon as the door closed, Cassie wanted to jump Cole like a hungry tiger, but fear and uncertainty held her back. But Cole didn't hesitate. He knelt down before her and took her hands in his. Her knuckles were still bruised and scabbed from just basic existence in the future, and he kissed each knuckle carefully, in turn.

"I'm so sorry," he said into her hands. That shouldn’t have felt as seductive as it did.

"What?" 

"I couldn't find you. I didn't--I didn't even get a chance to look for you. It was my fault you were there and I couldn't do anything about it." When he raised his eyes to hers, the guilt there, the precise knowledge of what it was like, the deep sadness...it almost undid her.

She cupped his face in her hands, like she'd dreamed of every night, like she'd wanted to since she could stand and think again in cold, dim future, and his hands fell down to her knees. "You saved me."

"I saved Ramse here. I could have saved you here, too."

"It's okay, Cole. It was hard--it was awful. But I think--I think I understand you better. And I know a little more of what we need to do now. It's real now."

She shifted closer, and the side of the robe slipped down off her shoulder, revealing the ugly x-shaped scar Deacon had given her. Cole saw it, and his hands tightened around her knees. And then he pointedly relaxed, muscle by muscle, and leaned forward, and kissed her scar. It matched the one he had, and he moved his lips over it slowly and carefully, his scruff itching the untouched flesh around it.

Cassie found her hands in his hair, drawing him closer. She didn't want to think about where the scars came from; she just wanted this--warm hands, soft lips, a soft bed and a safe place. Cole's hands slid up her thighs under the robe...and found nothing under it, because she didn't want to put her disgusting old clothes back on after getting so clean. She slid off the bed and onto his lap, and his arms went around her as if they were made to fit together, like his arms and her waist were two halfs of a single whole.

And he sighed against her neck as she sighed into his.

For a moment, they just stayed like that, their hearts beating together. And then Cassie undid the tie at her waist, and the robe fell back, and Cole couldn't get his own clothes off fast enough. She helped him get his shirt over his head, laughing as his mouth found her neck again before the sleeves were even all the way off his arms. She fumbled with his belt as he lifted her back to the bed, his mouth finding hers, his hands strong and his chest to hers. HIs arms twined up her back and she pushed herself closer to him, wrapping her legs around his hips, her arms around his strong shoulders. She didn't remember when he got his pants down, but her hands were on his smooth ass and they were so close, so close--

Cassie had imagined what sleeping with Cole would be like. She'd daydreamed about it between visits, and when she'd caught herself watching his hands while they worked together. After he'd guided her arms and hips while teaching her to shoot. She'd dreamed about how warm he was as she slept on cold hard beds or colder, harder grounds outside. But she hadn't gotten it right in any of her guesses or imaginings.

This was so much better.

Cole never let her go. His arms stayed around her, holding her close, holding her steady, holding her together and secure and safe. He kissed her like a drowning man looking for air, and she was drunk on those kisses, but he didn't push her or pressure her--he let her set the speed and decide how far they went, despite how naked they already were. Despite the hot weight of him and the slick, hungry warmth in her center. He was shaking, breathing as hard as she was, his hands everywhere--but he waited until she called him to her, until she felt safe.

Cassie had never felt safer in her life.

She wanted him closer. She pulled him closer. He obliged, pushing himself so far inside her she thought maybe they'd become the same person, as she wanted it to last forever.

"Cas," he breathed, as he withdrew to join with her again, "Cas, my Cas. I thought I'd never see you again."

"I'm never leaving your side again," she said, fiercely, and then she closed her eyes and raised her hips and there was no more space for words between them.

\---  
It was a long time before she came down and found herself still in Cole's arms. She was so tired, all she wanted to do was sleep, but she didn't want to miss a moment of her time with him.

Cole smiled, a bright, loving smile, like she was some magical being who had changed his life. She kind of thought it was the other way around, but she smiled back.

He pulled the blankets up over them without quite letting go of her, and snuggled in. "Welcome back."

"That is a much better welcome than I'd expected."

"It's been a long time since I saw you. I missed you."

She traced his face with her fingertips. "And I missed you."

Cole kissed her then, gently and lovingly, without any of the guardedness that had been such a defining part of him before. She almost wanted to cry, she was so happy. And then his eyes went dark and his eyebrows came down again, and it was like a stone settled on her chest, pushing her back down into reality.

"What's wrong?"

"It was Deacon, wasn't it? The one who hurt you?" His thumb found the scar on her chin and lip again, and hovered there like maybe he might hurt her again if he touched her too firmly. He hadn't been afraid to touch her firmly before.

"Yes."

"And someone else?"

"Hooded men and women. They called themselves the Twelve. They weren't expecting me--but they were expecting someone. Who didn't ever arrive, that I saw."

"I'm going to kill him," he said, and there was such certainty in his voice that it shivered down her spine, and pooled between her thighs and she wasn’t sleepy anymore. 

"Not before I do," she said.

"Together then," he said. "You and me against them all. Against the end of everything."

"I like the sound of that. You and me."

"I'm never leaving your side again," he echoed her words back to her, and she laughed. Cole, her Cole, wound his fingers into her hair and she climbed on top of him, and for another long while, they were one.

Cassie slept that night deeper than she'd slept in months, wrapped up and warm in Cole's arms, and she didn't dream of violence or of red leaves. She dreamed of a future without either.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the cards on the table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, an update! What? I know! That's probably why this one is so long and why it's all story and no smut. Don't worry, they'll get back in bed sooner or later.

They stayed in bed as long as they could. Cole could have spent the whole rest of his life here, in this morning, where the light came through the curtains and made Cassie’s hair glow, where they didn’t need clothes or food or anything but each other. Where the end of the world was never going to happen.

But that was not to be, and they knew it.

Ramse gave them until noon, and then came through the door between their two rooms with a tray full of food, and a very loud voice. “Wakey wakey, lovebirds, we’ve got work to do.”

“Come on, man,” Cole said, hauling himself upright as Cassie pulled away from him. She wrapped herself in the sheet and headed for the bathroom, picking up her clothes as she went, and Cole sat, naked and not caring, on the side of the bed and rubbed at his face as if he’d just woken up, instead of doing so several hours and two more romps ago. It felt like just waking up, though, from a wonderful dream into a cold and terrible reality.

“Hurry up and get your pants on, brother,” Ramse said, kicking said pants in his direction. “There’s things to do.”

“What things?”

“We’ve got to get everyone on the same page. And then we’ve got to get moving.”

Cassie came out of the bathroom, just finishing up one her of impeccable sleek ponytails, all business, just as Cole pulled his teeshirt back on and looked around for his jacket. She skimmed her fingers along the strip of flesh left before he managed to pull his shirt all the way down, and laughed when he jumped and covered his skin faster than he needed to. She was the first one at the little table.

Cole wanted to do a whole list of something about how her fingers left trails of sensation over his skin, but Ramse was right; they all had things they needed to share.

"So we're done protecting the timeline, right?" He said as he grabbed an apple and a knife and started hacking chunks off of it.

Ramse went tense, and didn't answer fast enough.

"Son of a bitch, Rams, what the hell?"

"I can't kill my son," he said, very carefully. Cole had heard that tone of voice before. Usually moments before someone got shot. It made Cole want to punch him. They'd been running together for weeks, he'd nursed the bastard back to health. And nothing had changed.

"Nobody's killing anyone."

"But if you two manage your plan, he'll never be born!"

Cassie raised her hands between them like she was holding off fighting dogs. "This isn't getting us anywhere. I'm hearing that you're saving you're trying to save your son, and you're trying to stick to the mission. Right? There's your cards. On the table. What else?"

The silence grew. Cole was furious--but it was also a mix of sadness and remembered betrayal and frustration. He thought they were already back on the same page, and here Ramse was, still trying to kill the world so one kid could be born. The math didn’t make sense to him. And now that he didn’t have to keep Cassie alive quite as hard, now that she was an active part of this, he didn’t have to make that equivalency between them.

“Okay, fine,” Cassie said. “I’ll go.” She ticked off the points on her fingers as she went, shooting both of them looks like a schoolteacher does when the kids are being stupid. Cole didn’t remember much about school, but he remembered that look. “The Twelve have taken over the Facility and the Machine, and we don’t know why. Deacon is there; he came in with them and brought the scavs.” She shuddered about that, and some of Cole’s resentment turned into concern. He touched her elbow and she smiled to let him know she was okay before continuing. “Jennifer Goines is going to found a weird nomadic cult called the Daughters that definitely has something to do with all of this, but I don’t know what. She’s just as nuts as she is now. Maybe more. And she knows things, Cole, she knows things that haven’t happened yet, here or there. Her crazy is something other than an imbalance.”

“The Twelve?” Ramse said, and this time the sharpness in his voice and face were a whole other sort of thing. 

“You know them?” Cole asked.

“I know a Twelve. What did they look like, Cassie?”

“Tall, dark cloaks, guys and girls but all dressed the same. Hard fists.” She paused again, and swallowed some other piece of trauma. Each time she did, something splintered inside Cole. He knew the future and what it did to people too well. “They looked at the Machine like they were waiting for something--almost like it was holy.”

Ramse hissed out what might have been a Japanese swear word. “I know who they are, but not what they’re for.”

“Well?” Cassie and Cole said together when he didn’t continue, but it wasn’t like when he used to tell stories around the campfires they lived by for decades. That was playful. This was all clenched jaws and annoyance and, Cole thought, no small part of fear. That, too, set him on edge.

Ramse took a breath, then leaned forward in his fancy suit, and put his elbows on his knees like he always had, and laced his fingers together. He looked at them slantways. “There’s twelve babies that Olivia has. I saw them once, at the Temple, but I don’t know where she took them or what they’re doing with them, but apparently we found out what their ultimate purpose is. She mentioned that they were all immune, both naturally and by design.”

“The Army is designing babies?” Cole said, and his stomach knotted up with the thought. “Killing the world for whatever personal reasons and designing the people who will replace everyone?”

“Maybe,” Ramse said. “I think I have an idea of what they were looking for.”

“What? Or Who?” Cassie asked, and Ramse smiled, a real smile.

“I like her, Cole. You were right. Yes, who. I think they’re waiting for the Witness.”

“We thought you were the Witness when we went to that facility a few weeks ago, here,” Cassie said. 

Ramse laughed just a little, and one hand drifted to where his bullet wound was still not quite healed. “Yeah, I got that. But you were misled. Look, the Army is more convoluted than you know. There’s layers and hierarchies and they all have purposes and plans. They aren’t all that forthcoming with them, either. It’s like terrorist cells here--no one knows more than their own part in the plan so no one can betray the whole.”

Cassie nodded. Cole didn’t, but that made sense. That’s how scavs worked a lot of the times, too. 

“But I was sort of an exception. Even more now. They knew I was coming, even though that was totally unplanned by me and further back than any of us had gone before that point. They gave me a job and a purpose, and I told them everything I know to maintain the way things happened.” Cole started to say something snotty about that, but Ramse kept talking so he closed his mouth and gritted his teeth. They weren’t going to find a common ground on that right now. “But I knew that sooner or later, my usefulness would be used up, so I started collecting information, gathering puzzle pieces. I don’t have a lot of answers, but we’ve all got different perspectives now, so maybe we can figure out some of it.”

“Yeah, man, that’s the point of this conversation.”

“Here’s what I know. And I’ve been waiting ages to share this with someone. The leader of the Army is this Witness, and he passes information down to Olivia--she calls him her father, but damned if I could find any proof of that. Or anything else having to do with her. It’s possible that her information has just been very well erased by a really good hacker, but I think it’s more like the information was never there to begin with. I think she’s from out of time, too.”

“She wasn’t in Jones’s files,” Cole said. “I’ve seen all those subjects.”

“Me too,” Cassie said. “And the unofficial subjects. None of them were women.”

“Which leads to my next point. I think there’s another program. Maybe another Machine, I don’t know, but maybe it’s as simple as a future program. I don’t think 2043 is the end of the line with this story. We’ve been assuming that thirty or so years on either side of the apocalypse is all that mattered--but what if it’s bigger than that?”

Cassie and Cole both sat back for a minute. “That makes sense with what I’ve seen,” Cassie said before Cole could think of anything to add. “They were surprised and shocked that it was me that came through the Machine. It could have just as easily been shock that something came from the past when they were expecting the future.”

“Is the Witness the only one?” Cole asked.

“Probably not,” Ramse said in the tone of voice of someone delivering the worst news. “They had a whole system set up when I arrived. They knew when and where I’d be, they sent me letters for years, books, information. They were grooming me to be this person they needed me to be.”

“An asshole? They didn’t need to spend all that time and effort, you’ve always been that.”

“Ha ha, brother. They needed the info, that’s all. They talked like I was valuable, but it wasn’t me they needed. But again, it was a system, a whole protocol. There were words for everything--I was a Traveler, they were the Greeters, there was the Temple, a whole ceremony of welcoming. They used a paradox to power something, I don’t know what, but I heard it. They’ve done this before.”

Cassie leaned forward this time, and Cole felt like he was looking at a really weird mirror. “Did anyone else come through?”

“Not that I know of. They kept me out of the loop a lot of the time. So it wouldn’t ‘compromise my memory’ or some shit. So they could keep me from figuring things out, I bet. But I heard nobodies talking sometimes, and they were getting ready for some other arrival, and there had been others before. The whole Army is based on commandeered knowledge from time travelers.”

“Who’s the Witness then?”

“No idea. But he’s always been here. And we saw him right before you came back, Cassie. It was like the Machine’s light, but fractured and wavering, and without the Machine. Olivia was terrified. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I think a lot of what they’re doing is building things up so that that bastard can come through and be here again--in the world. I think he’s--”

Cassie cut him off, her voice verging on awed. “Between times. He’s stuck.”

Cole was feeling like the idiot in the room. “How’d he get there? One of the early experiments? Sent off like the rest of us, but never landed?”

“Maybe.”

“You think he’s always been from the future. The future of the future. You think something went wrong then.”

“And it’s messed up everything before and after.”

“So, what,” Cassie said, “they’re trying to fix that? To change it? To make sure whatever happened happens?”

Ramse spread his hands. “That’s all I know. When you go back, you’ll have to see if you can pick up some more pieces.”

That was like a punch in Cole’s ribs. “Back. Of course you have to go back. I didn’t think--” He didn’t think at all. He just wanted her safely in his arms, and when she was, he didn’t think past that. He didn’t want to.

She scooted closer, and took his hand, squeezed his fingers so tightly he knew she was trying to be braver than she was. “I think I have a day or so left here, if the pattern is the same.”

“And then weeks without you until your next mission--if the pattern is the same.”

She smiled, but it was sad. More splinters inside him. “I don’t know how that’s going to go. Things weren’t great when I left, between the Daughters, the scavs, and the Twelve. I don’t know who will be in charge or what they’ll want from me when I get back.”

“Cass…”

“I know.”

Ramse cleared his throat. “There’s more.”

Cole threw up his hands. “What the fuck now?”

“If the future is in play like we think, there’s going to be new players involved soon. There’s only two years--less than two full years--before the virus gets out and things go to hell. We can expect more trouble as we get to that. But if they’re not working on that, for or against, we have no idea when they’ll show up or what they’ll do.”

Cassie nodded. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

Cole wrapped his arm around her and held her so close he was pretty sure neither of them could breathe right, but she didn’t protest and he wasn’t going to let her go. “Did the caches work? The files?”

“They did. Beautifully.”

“Wait wait wait,” Ramse said, “you guys had a way to communicate with the future?”

“Sort of. Recently.”

“Then we’ve got something the Army doesn’t know about! This is great!”

“And it’s how I’ll keep contact with you when you’re in the future, okay?”

Cassie nodded, and they both tried to convey way too many feelings with significant glances while Ramse paced around the room talking about what he could leave for Jones and Whitley and his kid Sam. And that was like a trigger for him. He spun around and crouched before Cassie, pointedly putting himself lower than her, and took both her hands in his. Her hands were small and pale, and stronger than they’d been when she left. His were strange, one ordinary, and one two thirds translucent. Cole could see the blood moving under the surface in his veins. “Cassie,” he said, “I need you to find Sam when you get back. Find him and tell him that I’m keeping my promise. Move him somewhere safe. Tell him about me.”

That angry fire sparked up in Cole’s chest again, but again, he kept his mouth closed. 

“I will,” Cassie said. “I’ll try.”

“That’s all I can ask.”

“So what do we do now?” Cole asked as Ramse retreated back to his seat at the little table, his face closed off and pensive again.

“We go kick the Monkeys again.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little more discussion, and then some more sexing.

“One more thing, though,” Cole said, and the other two looked at him, and it almost made him nervous. These were the two people who meant the most to him, and he had no idea how they’d react. “We’re not going to protect time anymore.”

Ramse opened his mouth to start shouting, he could tell because of the way his forehead crinkled up, but Cole raised his hand and cut him off before he even started. “Chechnya--that happened because we were protecting time. Cassie didn’t warn me, even though she knew ahead of time what would happen--and she did it because I told her to when I called her before I left. And that whole thing, from going after the virus, to the bombs, to waking up in 2017--all of that was total bullshit.”

“Cole--”

“Stuff it, Ramse. You weren’t there. You didn’t see the world then.”

“I was there. I saw all of it. And you did too, the first time when we were kids.”

“Not like that, Ramse. Not knowing what we know now. You didn’t see--” He swallowed, looking for the words, and made the mistake of looking at Cassie. Her eyes were so big, and when he met them, he saw her as she’d looked in 2017, frail, pale, dying, waiting for him to come back. He saw her the way she looked when she died in his arms. “You don’t know what I saw. I’m not going to see it again.”

She understood. Her full lips narrowed, and she nodded; he knew without her saying it that she was agreeing to all of it--because she was part of Chechnya too, she was the last person he talked to, she was the one who saw the wreckage and she was the one he went back to, twice. He nodded back, and her hand came up to his arm.

Ramse cleared his throat; they’d forgotten he was there for a second.

“That’s when everything went to shit,” Ramse said. “When I found out about Sam. When you came back and the mission had changed from saving the world to saving her.”

“Saving her IS saving the world.”

“For you, maybe.”

“We’ll just have to disagree on that.” He waved his hand to dismiss all of that, and finally tore his eyes off of Cassie to glare at his brother again. “But that’s not the point. The point is, we had information we could have used, and we didn’t share it, and because of that, we both died. Sort of. We’re not doing that anymore. The Army has the same information, and the only way we’re going to beat them is to break the pattern. Do things they don’t expect.”

Ramse leaned back, looking down his nose at him and Cassie on the bed. But he didn’t argue. “That’s a point,” he eventually conceded. “They’re complacent. They think they know everything, and we recently proved to them that they don’t; they’re offbalance. It’s an advantage we should push.”

There was still that unnerving holding back, that gulf between them. But he was agreeing on this one thing, and Cole would take what he could get.

“Good enough,” Cole said. “What next?”

Cassie said, “When I go back, I’ll see what I can find out. About what’s going on then, but also what’s going on between then and now. It’s all current for a timetraveler; I’ll bring back reports. We’ll keep everyone up to date.”

“Jones won’t be happy,” Cole warned. 

“Jones doesn’t have to be happy. But she’s part of this, and she’s been holding back as much--if not more--as any of us. I’ll see what I can get out of her.”

“I have some calls to make.” Ramse said, getting up once and for all. “Don’t get too naked while I’m gone, I’ll only be gone an hour or two.”

Cassie pinked up, but Cole barely even noticed. Ramse knew him. It was why they were still together--but also part of the problem. A problem that would be tabled for now, but that he wouldn’t give up on, because knew Ramse, too.

The second they were alone, Cassie snapped him out of his dark thoughts by grabbing his face and kissing him, hard. 

“Already?” He said, breathless, half-laughing, when they pulled apart for air. It wasn’t real protest, and she knew it; he was hard as a rock already, pressed into her belly, and she knew it. 

“We spent too much downtime looking at the same papers over and over again before; I don’t intend to make the same mistake this time.” She pulled him down closer over her, and pushed his hair out of his face tenderly, her eyes gone soft and sad and deep. “I should’ve kissed you when you weren’t dead from Chechnya. I should’ve kissed you when we were dancing at the museum. I should’ve kissed you before you left that first mission, blood on your hands and all.”

“I wouldn’t have known what to do with you, then,” he said, and ducked down to kiss her again, deeper, longer.

“But you know now,” she said against his neck. 

One of his hands was in her hair, that arm bracing her neck and back against him, and he worked his other between them to get at her belt and his while he traced the line from her jaw down her neck to the ball of her shoulder with kisses, then back along her collarbone and down her chest to her cleavage. Then her hands joined his, and he brought his other one down, too, and soon they were as naked as they’d been less than an hour ago.

Last night was feverish, the joy of discovery and reunion. This morning was cheerful and playful. Now, they were as desperate to close every space between them, but they both knew everything they had to do soon, all the risks they were running, and this was making love--proving it and building it and stitching promises into eachother’s flesh. 

“I’ll come back,” she gasped as he plunged into the hot center of her, “I’ll always come back, always.” And she locked her legs around him and pulled him so close that he couldn’t withdraw and instead he moved against her like a pump, like his whole body and hers was part of the same beating heart.

He kissed her everywhere he could reach, and she kissed every inch of him she could reach, and when they came, together, she threw her arms around his neck and held her cheek to his, every muscle in her body straining to be closer, closer, closer still. She was like a vice wrapped all around him, every inch of her as hard as the length of him, and for one beautiful moment, he was sure they’d merged, finally. 

When she started to unwind from around him, he lifted his face just enough to see her, and she looked more like an angel than ever. There were tears in her eyes, though, and he rocked against her hips, and wiped their trails from her cheeks. “We’ll be alright,” he said, every drop of tenderness he’d ever felt poured into those three words.

“How can you know that?”

“Because we’re together. The world goes to hell when we’re apart; that’s been proved time and again, in figurative and literal ways. But we’re together now. Whatever happens to us, we’re a team.”

“Did you mean what you said? That saving me is saving the world?” She looked so worried, so...disbelieving. It couldn’t have hurt worse if someone had stabbed him in the back right at that moment. “Do you really believe that?”

“What did they do to you?” He asked, more gently than he’d ever said anything in his whole life. He smoothed his hands over her forehead, trying to unfurrow her brow, to wipe out the fear and the conviction there that she wasn’t worth that. She was worth more than anything. “I’ve never meant anything more in my life.”

A new emotion flooded into her eyes, made them sparkle. “You do believe that. You really do.”

“Of course I do. I love you.” And then he laughed, just a little, and it made him roll against her and she rolled with him. “I’ve seen what happens when I don’t save you, though, and I know you’re the key. It’s not just that I love you. It’s how it is.”

Cassie smiled wider than he’d seen since she came back, and she lifted herself up and kissed him--and just like that, they were ready to go again.

Until a loud knock on the door.

“Are you decent?” Ramse said, and his tone said he knew they weren’t.

“Not even close,” Cole said against her shoulder, her fingers in his hair, and didn’t care if Ramse could hear him or not. Cassie laughed, and arched under him, and he had every intention of never leaving this room again.

But Ramse kept knocking.

“Get dressed,” Ramse said, “We’ve got a next step.”


End file.
